Customer Service....Ha!

September 9th, 2010 at 06:11 pm

I am thoroughly ticked. A year ago I bought a HP Pavalion notebook to replace my very old desktop. I got the wifi so I could sit in the kitchen and work while my hubby is in the family room instead of being squirreled away in a back bedroom.

In August I had some trouble and called customer service because although the computer would turn on, nothing would come up on the screen. I pulled out the manual, did the troubleshooting tips, and it still didn't work. I called customer service. Forty five minutes later after having to take it apart and move the ram cards around, it worked. I was relieved.

Two weeks ago the same thing happened. I did the same thing with the Ram cards and nothing. I called and after an hour of doing this and that and even taking out the hard drive, they decided I needed to send it in. Of course the "sage" on the phone said she would email me the order number. I told her it would be a little hard for me to read it since I only had one computer and since it didn't work, it wouldn't do me much good. She read it off to me. Two days later I received the postage paid box and I packed it up and sent it to California to be fixed.

Yesterday it was returned. I was thrilled -- much quicker than I anticipated. I unpacked it, plugged it in and turned it on. It didn't work. I tried it 4 or 5 times. No good. I called customer service and they wanted me to do all these things...I had 24 hours to check it and here it was less than 24 hours and they didn't want to look up the stuff although I had the number for the repair. They wanted me to read them the serial number and model number and give them all this information I have given them twice before.

Then, they had me do a couple of things and it came on. He pronounced it fixed. I told him I disagreed -- I don't trust that it will work because it didn't work when I first tried it. I don't think I should have to wiggle this and unplug that every time I go to use it. He said he'd call me tonight at 7:30 to check on it.

We had open house at school tonight so after I got home, I immediately turned on the computer.

What a surprise...it didn't work. I left it on and went on to do some other things anticipating his phone call. An hour later, the computer came on. Gosh, isn't that convenient? And the clown from HP that was supposed to call me at 7:30 p.m. Central time? Well, apparently he has forgotten.

I am very disappointed with the fact my computer has had the same problem 3 times, they are reluctant to fix it, and they don't keep their promises. I do not believe I will ever purchase another computer bearing HP after this experience.

I know I am not alone in this frustrating experience. It used to be many businesses tried to please the customer. I know there are some people who took advantage of those companies, but for those of us who do not, I say my trust as a consumer has taken a hit.

5 Responses to “Customer Service....Ha!”

Oh total bummer!
We've been very happy with our HP. We did have to send it away once after we had it about 8 months. Needed a motherboard. They didn't tell us to back up our data/anything/everything and when we got it back it was totally empty. That was a real pain.

You might see if your DH would call for you. As crappy as it is - sometimes it takes a hubby's displeased voice to get the point across..

Ah, sorry to hear that. A friend of mine had an HP laptop that he returned and had it fixed no less than 3 times before he threw in the towel. I don't know if HP's quality is slipping or that these experiences are fairly uncommon. Either way, I can imagine it being a frustrating experience indeed.

I haven't had any experience with HP, but I did have this same problem with my Wii. It didn't work straight out of the box (wouldn't read discs) so I sent it in for warranty - this is back when you couldn't find them in stores at all. Got it back, plugged it in, and it STILL didn't work! I called customer service and they said "but we just fixed that." Um yeah, I don't care - it doesn't WORK. Thankfully the 2nd time was a charm. Hope you get this taken care of quickly!!

My customer rep called today at 3:30...ahem...I was at work, not the 7:30 p.m. he was scheduled to call last night. I called back this evening and got another rep who said he didn't understand why the first rep wouldn't accept it wasn't fixed and if I wanted to send it back in, that is always an option. I'm trying to be optimist that it will get fixed, but I'm not holding my breath.

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